By Maddie Binning
Early morning exams are one step closer to getting scrapped.
In March, a petition to eliminate 8 a.m. final exams was created by Husain, a fourth-year marketing student. He started the petition on Change.org — while running for a student-at-large position in the Ryerson Senate. Now, after being elected, Husain will present his proposal in the first Senate meeting in the winter semester.
“Even though it’s in my last year [and] it’s not even going to affect me, I want to make a change because if there’s a better solution out there that can help students achieve higher grades then I really want to pursue that,” Husain said.
The petition, which has more than 1,400 supporters, is meant to present the issue to the university. “Students spend countless hours putting in hard work in order to achieve a grade which can eventually help them bag a good job once they graduate,” the petition reads. “Having to write an exam at 8 a.m. can kill this dream.”
Husain plans to present his proposal to the Senate with a variety of solutions, so that “even if one doesn’t work, you can look towards the other ones.”
Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) President Andrea Bartlett said these changes can be implemented by the senate.
“Our senate rep, Victoria [Morton] … has plans to bring it up at the next senate meeting,” Bartlett said.
The meeting will be on Jan. 26.
In their November 2014 general meeting, the RSU voted in favour of a motion to lobby to end 8 a.m. classes.
But space limitations make the elimination of 8 a.m. classes impossible, according to Ryerson Registrar Charmaine Hack. External facilities like the Metro Toronto Convention Centre are already being used in order to meet the current need for examination spaces. To make use of more external facilities would require an in-depth look at the associated costs Hack said.
“The reality is that the demand for space still far outpaces the actual space available for classes and examinations,” said Hack. “So it continues to be impossible to avoid 8 a.m. classes or exams.”
Adrian Argudo, a second-year chemistry student, said he recognizes the struggles of scheduling classes with limited space, but as a commuter with four early classes, he wishes there was a way to fix the issue.
“I myself face a two-hour commute to and from Ryerson every day,” said Argudo. “Eight a.m. class would have me waking up at around five. If I were to stay up, say, until 1 a.m., I would get approximately four hours of sleep, so that’s typically what I get.”
Hack said the Office of the Registrar has been looking at other universities’ “different lengths of exams scheduled, [and] the use of tiered versus flat classrooms, the use of one room for simultaneous exams” to improve the situation in the future.
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